Our housing system is in a crisis, and body corporate schemes are not immune
At least 415,000 Queensland households live in community titles schemes, and most of these are run by a body corporate. This includes people living in duplexes, residential unit blocks and high-rise accommodation complexes.
While these allow for flexible arrangements where someone can rent or own their home while sharing common property with other occupants, there are too many issues in body corporate schemes for the government to carry on with business as usual.
We need urgent action on:
- Building management statements, which allow developers to retain control of body corporate schemes for up to 25 years, with no transparency to prospective buyers about such arrangements.
- Disaster planning and recovery, ensuring all community members, including older people and people with disability are safe during emergencies.
- Insurance reform.
- The accreditation, licensing and regulation of body corporate managers.
- Bullying within body corporate schemes.
- Management rights.
- Dispute resolution, including funding for the Office of the Commissioner for Body Corporate and Community Management.
- The ability of people living in body corporate schemes to avoid embedded networks and pay a fair price for energy.
- Commissions paid to body corporate managers.